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The other unknown is what rate of return I could actually expect during the years I was collecting early but just investing the money. Getting closer to 5% would make taking early benefit a no brainer. Getting closer to 3% would make holding off a better deal. One can only guess what the real return will end up being, so that kind of makes it a gamble. But at the end of the day it probably doesn't really matter since the difference seems pretty small.

DW and I (okay, mostly I) have been reviewing our retirement savings plans in the new economic climate. What I've been reading across a variety of sources (both bullish and bearish) is that even the standard 4% withdrawal rate may be a tad optimistic these days. We're shooting for 3.5% as a hedge. I don't remember what our SS plan is atm but we're also looking for a financial planner who will give us a second (well, third, actually) opinion on our plans so we'll review that then.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

Finally got a chance to talk to our advisor and he said taking all things into consideration, to start taking it now at 62 and invest it until we need to use it. We can then leave our investments to continue to grow.

My knee jerk reaction is that of course your advisor will advise you to take it now to invest for later reward.

The cynical reason I have is that it is more money for him to handle, i.e. more commissions.

The less cynical reason is that these guys believe wholeheartedly and with blinders on that what they do is important and how they act will make your money grow.

For me, I like diversifying my asset growth potential and so
I have kept my Social Security earnings growing in the Social Security pot, away from the grubby little hands of my investment advisors. I will probably start pulling Social
security income next year at age 65.

I haven’t checked in a while, but I believe I’ll only get around 20k if I take it at 62. I quite working just before turning 50 so I’ve got quite a few 0’s for many years. Taking it next year at 62 would keep me from withdrawing that amount from my own accounts, thus keeping it invested. My wife has a pension so this would have no effect on her.

There is also the concern that due to the shortfall of SS funds that things may change in the future. And those of us that saved and prepared for retirement will either see our ss taxed higher or reduced to fund the others.

So for me it still makes sense to take it early, keep other funds invested. If I live much longer than expected and my rate of return is low. It will cost my heirs a little. But it’s really not a big deal either way.

Making sure each spouse is secure if one dies is the way to go. Both of us took reduced pensions so we could leave them to one another. Both of our SS is so minuscule due to WEP that we will each take at our FRA. Thankfully our small pensions are COLA. In the 1970’s I worked in the benefits department for a large steel company and men would tell their wives they had taken a smaller pension so if they died they would receive one too. Then the asshat would die and I would have to tell a sobbing widow between the ages of 50-60 that he lied and there was nothing. Most of these women had never worked. They would get really upset and ask me at 21 how they were supposed to live. I love that now each spouse must sign off on the others pension if a survivor benefit is not chosen.

IL it was not my advisor that suggested I take it early to invest, that was my idea. He had suggested that I wait until 66 if we didn't need it. We talked about where DH and I were with our monthly expenditures right now. We live comfortably below what we are bringing in with his SS disability and long term disability insurance and my pension. I'm 62 and he is 63. He loses his disability insurance at 66 so I had planned on at the very least taking it at 65 to replace his lost insurance. He has medicare and I'm paying $900 a month for medical which is our largest expense. I don't know what medical is going to do next year so that is the biggest factor that could pop us out of the comfort zone between now and 65. Expenses will go down once I get on medicare and hopefully we would still bob along until 70 when we would start minimum distribution from our investments.

Teacher Terry that had to be horribly awkward. More than once when somebody died where I worked the spouse found that they had never updated the beneficiary information when they married and they weren't getting anything. Details, details. In my case I did take the larger pension amount because I was going early at 55. At that time DH was making great money and bennies, loved his work and planned to work till 65 at least. People questioned me leaving early and taking less but I knew I was done and a lot could happen between 55 and full retirement at 59. Well.... his stroke 6 months after I retired changed everything. I'm thankful that we were debt free when I retired because we lost his income and benefits when he lost his job. It took about a year to get him approved for SSDI and that with the long term disability insurance almost made him whole for income pre stroke. We were just lacking medical insurance.
We discussed me taking the larger amount but felt it was right for us now and that if I should pre-decease he would be the beneficiary of my deferred comp account which I had spent years maxing out contributions and had more money in that than my pension plan. With that and his SSDI he will be more than OK.

It was horrifying for everyone involved. It was 40 years ago and I never forgot it. My dad did the right thing by my mom and wanted her covered figuring he would die first which he did. Despite great planning unexpected things happen but glad it worked out fine financially for you both.